Tehran wants to renegotiate uranium deal

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Iran is seeking exemptions from a deal to suspend sensitive
nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, just three
days after it came into force, the head of the UN atomic watchdog
said.

Iran's request threatened to wreck a hard-won agreement with the
European Union and to infuriate Washington, which despite Iranian
denials has long accused Tehran of trying to build an atomic
bomb.

The dispute came to a head as the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), which has the authority to refer Iran to the United
Nations for possible sanctions, began a board meeting to review its
nuclear program.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran wanted to continue
experimenting with 20 centrifuges for enriching uranium, without
using nuclear material.

Western diplomats said that request flew in the face of Tehran's
November 15 agreement with EU members Germany, France and
Britain.

To avoid sanctions, Iran agreed voluntarily to suspend all
uranium enrichment activity, the process by which the metal is
purified for use in nuclear reactors or, potentially, in bombs.

"There's a general feeling that people want to give the EU
agreement a chance," a diplomat said. But the Iranian move meant
the deal had been "unnecessarily placed in jeopardy".

Another senior diplomat said Tehran appeared to have raised the
exemption issue as a bargaining tactic in the hope of winning
concessions elsewhere.

"This is a big problem," a third diplomat said. He said IAEA
inspectors ran into problems on Wednesday when Iran refused to let
them seal the 20 centrifuges to put them out of use.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky confirmed this and said the
centrifuges were at the Natanz enrichment plant, a facility that
Tehran had kept secret from the UN until a group of Iranian exiles
revealed its existence in August 2002.

Mr ElBaradei said that until it suspended enrichment-related
activities on Monday, Iran had produced 3.5 tonnes of UF6, uranium
hexafluoride.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said this was significantly higher
than the two tonnes previously recorded by the agency and could
produce about a quarter of the 25 kilograms of highly enriched
uranium needed for a bomb.